Grassroots Groundswell

Just in from Frank D’Amore:

Hi Everyone,

On Sunday, March 30, I had occasion to speak to a resident of Townsend Place about the procedures used by Appraisal Systems, Inc.

Appraisal Systems, Inc. arrived at his home and no one was there to answer the door so they did an estimate using the exterior of the house as their gauge. They left a form, that I saw, advising the owner they estimated the house had 10 rooms and 4 bathrooms.

It is very obvious that this employee of Appraisal Systems, Inc. had little or no experience in doing his job. Take a look at the homes on Townsend Place and you will get an idea of how far off this person was with his estimate.

The property owner called the number left by the appraiser and made an appointment for access to the interior of the home. Once completed the owner was asked to sign a card indicating the appraisal was completed. After reading the card it was found that the appraiser found that the house had central air conditioning, and that the basement was 100% finished.

The owner pointed out the the house obviously does not have central air, and that the basement is not 100% finished. At the insistence of the owner the basement was measured, it was found that 60% of the basement was finished, not 100%.

It is strongly suggested that you read the appraisal card carefully before signing it.

Update 4/1/08:

Reader sent in a link to the Appraisal Systems Inc. “Frequently Asked Questions” page. Thanks!

I’m getting the distinct impression that the local Democrats are playing games with their own Democratic electorate in the run-up to the primaries.

My understanding is that the filing deadline for candidates is next Monday, April 7.

Councilwoman Mary Forbes made a specific reference, during the Democratic Club meeting, to her belief that the Democratic nominating process in North Plainfield is more small-d democratic than the Republican Club’s procedures.

The Republican Club chose its candidates last week by a selection committee nomination, followed by a floor nomination, followed by candidate presentations to the floor voters, followed by a floor vote, as posted here. By the way, if anyone knows the breakdown of that Gatto v. McGarry vote, many readers are interested in learning those numbers.

As posted after the Democratic Club meeting, Mrs. Forbes said that two delegates are elected from each electoral district in the Borough, and those people then gather together to consider applicants and choose the Mayor and Council candidates.

However, when I e-mailed her later for more detail, especially about the timeframe for those representative elections, she emphasized that the Democratic Club has nothing to do with the candidate selection process, and that she is not a member of the Democratic Committee, which is responsible for candidate selection.

She referred me to the state website for elections, which is far too general to shed light on North Plainfield’s selection procedures, and to Somerset County Democratic Chair Elia Pelios at eliap@mac.com, who has not yet responded to my Friday e-mail query, copies of which also went to all six Democratic Council members, five of whom have also not responded.

Dear Mr. Pelios-

I was referred to you by Councilwoman Mary Forbes, of the North Plainfield Borough Council.

I’m looking for information about how local Democratic candidates for Mayor and the three open Council seats on our Borough will be chosen.

The Republican Club completed its selection process earlier this week, and my understanding is that the primary filings from both parties and from independent candidates who gather 50 signatures on petitions, must be received by the Borough Clerk no later than April 7.

At a Democratic Club meeting last night, Mrs. Forbes mentioned a process through which two representatives are chosen from each electoral district, and they then form a committee to choose candidates.

However, I would like more detail, especially about the timeframe for the different steps in the process, so that I can inform local blog readers (www.npccr.org) about how they can get involved in the process should they be interested in doing so.

Any information you can offer will be most appreciated.

Thanks. - KW

Over the weekend, I poked around some more and discovered that the chair of the local Democratic Committee is Tom Fagan (Planning Board chair and member of the Economic Development Committee), who was present at the Democratic Club meeting last week, but didn’t make any public remarks about candidate selection.

I e-mailed Mrs. Forbes for Mr. Fagan’s e-mail address, and she wrote back to say she’d passed my request  on to Mr. Fagan.

What gives?

Are there written, duly-adopted Democratic Committee by-laws that lay out these procedures?

Do Mary Forbes, Tom Fagan, Skip Stabile, Doug Singleterry, Mike Giordano, Frank Righetti or Bob Hitchcock have current copies of those by-laws?

If they forward a copy to me, I’ll read it and figure out how the process is supposed to work.

But didn’t they all go through the selection process themselves?

Do they remember how the process worked, or not?

UPDATE: Response from Councilwoman Mary Forbes:

Regarding your recent posting, I do not have bylaws as I am not a member. The committee asked me to accept nomination in 2006 based on my record of service in the Boro and in another municipality (information provided to the talent bank when I moved to North Plainfield).

Thank you, Mrs. Forbes.

One Council response down.

Five to go.

Sent in by Frank D’Amore last week:

Between 8:00 P.M. Thursday March 20 and 5:00 A.M. Friday March 21, in the 70 block of Willow Avenue, a car was broken into. The driver’s door window was smashed and a voice activated Magellan GPS was stolen. For some reason the car alarm did not activate.

The police officer taking the report told the victim that it is not uncommon for crimes to take place on Willow Avenue.

Perhaps all criminal incidents should be published in the local papers so that North Plainfield residents are aware of what is taking place in the Borough.

If any crimes are reported in your area, and you would like to have our residents made aware of them, please e-mail the information to frankdsr@att.net or call 747-6353 and ask for Frank. Thanks for your cooperation.

I’ll ask Frank to send a list of reported crimes every week or so, for posting in a sort of blog “police blotter.”

Another option would be a volunteer to take the time to go to the Police Department once a week and review the dispatch logs looking for newsworthy information. 

I used to be a reporter in western Massachusetts, and one of the reporters would go to the local PD every day to look through a computer print-out of the dispatch log. Most of the information was routine, cat up a tree, fender-bender type stuff.

But the point was to look for the crimes that residents would be interested in knowing about so they could better protect themselves and their families from theft, burglary and the like. 

To: Ms. Katherine Watt, Grassroots Groundswell Blog Editor

You were kind enough to post the letters I wrote to officials at Borough Hall related to my concerns about traffic conditions at the schools during pickup times.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Council President Frank Stabile for visiting me this past Saturday, March 29 to discuss the topic.

Mr. Stabile offered his apologies for not getting back to me sooner, and I can comprehend how he may have felt the mayor would have addressed the issue with me. Frank took time from his own weekend to stop by my house and talk about my concerns.

He and I discussed some of the approaches that could be taken to crack down on the numerous violations that occur near the schools. He assured me he would discuss this further with Chief Parenti, and expressed his agreement that the traffic situation around the schools is dangerous.

Hopefully, this will lead to stricter enforcement of the traffic laws that are regularly violated by selfish drivers around our schools each day. I look forward to the benefits in safety for our children (and for responsibly driving and walking parents).

Sincerely,

Greg Hatala

Just in from Dottie Gutenkauf:

Representatives of Solaris Health Systems, the corporation that acquired Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in 1997, are meeting Tuesday, April 1 with People’s Organization for Progress state chair Larry Hamm, members of the Plainfield clergy, and several other concerned community leaders, including Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.

While they’re meeting inside Muhlenberg, the community will be rallying outside, from 5 to 7 pm, at Park Avenue and Randolph Road in Plainfield.

PLEASE COME AND BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES–we must make our voices heard!

COMING UP:

NEXT SATURDAY, April 5, we will rally in Trenton on the State House steps at 12 noon. POP has arranged for buses–the requested donation is $15, but nobody will be turned away. Carpooling is also suggested. We’ll leave promptly at 10 am from the Park Avenue & Randolph Road parking lot.

JOIN US IN TRENTON APRIL 5TH–WE MUST SAVE MUHLENBERG REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER!

Questions? Come to the planning meeting–Monday, March 31, 6:30 pm at the duCret School of Art, 1030 Central Avenue in Plainfield–entrance and parking in the rear. Or call 908-731-1518.

As always, space on Grassroots Groundswell is available to any Borough resident, named or anonymous, elected or appointed, official or citizen, to address any local issue, at any time.

I’m setting up a few new groundrules for debate, to make sure that the blog can maintain and improve upon its reputation for presenting accurate, timely news and information and evidence-based, reasonable opinion pieces.

I pulled this list from a Political Forum site, and the main gist of it is: no personal attacks, individual or general.

Criticism is fine,  insults are not.

Discuss the issue, not the poster.

The following are now prohibited:

Rule 1: No direct personal attacks (i.e. Person X is an idiot).

Rule 2: No indirect personal attacks (i.e. I dislike Person X’s idiocy).

Rule 3: No trolling. Trolling is defined as baiting or provoking another poster with rude, disrespectful, or condescending remarks. Trolling also includes posting up comments that de-rail thread topics with nonsense.

Rule 4: No speculation about the personal lives of other posters.

Rule 5: No commenting on moderation in public, or mouthing off to moderators upon receiving a warning or penalty from them in private. Moderation may only be discussed or disputed via private e-mail with the moderator (me) at communityrights@gmail.com

Rule 6: Moderators keep discussions civil, enforce forum rules and are also bound by forum rules. They give their own political opinions, and their opinions are not the opinions of the forum. Moderators maintain the quality of political discussion and therefore moderators are empowered to edit and delete posts as well as to ban posters who they deem as degrading the civil atmosphere of the forum. The final interpretation of the forum rules rests with the moderators.

Rule 7: Personal aggression, condescension, rudeness, racism, bigotry, are banable offenses. The forum does not tolerate personal drama pushed into political discussions and forum business.

Rule 8: Low quality posting including but not limited to the following, are bannable offenses: misrepresenting or distorting another poster’s comments or actions, nonsensical and illogical remarks, or general stupidity. Moderators can issue bans for insults, trolling, low quality posting, spam and remarks or actions which moderators feel are beneath the standards of the forum. Low quality posters may be banned at the moderators discretion depending on the severity of the individual comment, post, or thread.

There are a few more, but those get at the general idea.

The Political Forum site moderators ban posters who violate those rules.

Update 3.31.08: Change of plans - To save myself time, I’m not going to correspond back and forth about rewrites (although that service is still available upon request).

I’m mostly going to edit posts that I think make good points but have some prohibited language or tone, to remove the negative, inappropriate and hurtful aspects, and to emphasize the substantive points. If there are no substantive points, then I’ll just delete the comment.

This is a new policy, so most of posts currently up, even those that violate the rules, are going to be left up. I retroactively edited a couple of posts, but I don’t have time to go back and look at them all.

This new proposal is not meant to cut off debate and discussion. Many people have demonstrated both an understanding of the importance of respectful debate and skill in presenting important factual information and strong individual views on that information, without insulting the subjects of their posts, or other readers.

But other readers have conveyed to me that personal attacks can create an unpleasant online environment, turning off long-time readers and new readers alike.

Getting the facts and a variety of perspectives on local issues out there is too important to risk losing what we’ve created, or losing the opportunity to see it grow and develop more. 

So, the sole purpose of the new policy is to make sure that this space remains and grows as a safe public debate forum for everyone who is now involved and everyone who may want to get involved in the future.

Reader feedback and suggestions, along with your understanding and support for the new policy, are always welcome and greatly appreciated.

To my knowledge, this is the most recent comprehensive look at the Borough as far as zoning, economic and community development planning, done in 1996, and not much has changed since. The report still has a lot of relevant data, maps and detailed plans for improvements.

[There was a new Master Plan adopted in 2002, posted here, although my impression is that it was a slap-dash job mostly designed to clear roadblocks for the Villa Maria condo development. The other, earlier comprehensive Master Plan was the 1974 version, posted here.

By law, North Plainfield must review and update the Master Plan every six years: that’s this year, to produce a 2008 document. It’s a very important process through which resident priorities (for things like open space and historic preservation and an attractive, vibrant downtown community core) can be set down as parameters for future Borough decisions. That link above goes to an excellent overview of the power of a good, citizen-crafted Master Plan in avoiding bad municipal development decisions - well worth a quick read.

Of particular note right now, in the 1996 Re-Examination, is the sign ordinance in Part 7 - the Economic Development Committee is currently working on a sign ordinance that will probably come before the Borough Council during an upcoming meeting. It’ll be interesting to see how the two sign ordinances compare, 1996 and 2008.

1996 Master Plan - Part 1

1996 Master Plan - Part 2

1996 Master Plan - Part 3

1996 Master Plan - Part 4

1996 Master Plan - Part 5

1996 Master Plan - Part 6

1996 Master Plan - Part 7

I agree with Mr. Ortega that most of the violations - immigrant and non-immigrant - could probably be solved if everyone clearly knew and understood what the rules require,  knew that there’s funding available to perform the needed repairs (for low and moderate income homeowners who qualify for COAH rehabilitation program being coordinated by Friends of the Carpenter) and knew that there would be real legal consequences for non-compliance after official notification.

I also agree with critics of the Allen Administration, who see that the Allen Administration has not and is not taking any steps to inform people of the needed repairs, encourage people to use the available funding streams, and then use the prosecution tools to force compliance (if people refuse to make the repairs even after they’re aware of the problem and the funding streams).Ramshackle structures and overcrowded structures (particularly when the inhabitants are unrelated, which is the case for the rooming houses) are unsafe for the inhabitants and lower the quality of life and property values for all the residents - immigrant and non-immigrant - in the neighborhoods around them. They’re also likely to lead to costly legal penalties if and when future Borough administrators enforce the property maintenance and zoning codes more rigorously.

That current administrative failure also opens the Borough to safety and legal implications - the Borough could be sued if something bad happened to inhabitants of an unsafe structure. And any settlement for any such lawsuit would cost taxpayers the money to pay the settlement.

In other words, we need the community carrot and the community stick.

Right now we don’t have either.

(Thank you to Norman E. Ortega for the translation. Also, thank you to Mike Castro, who has volunteered to attend the April 7 Town Meeting on Property Revaluations, to assist any Spanish-speaking participants who need translation help.)

NPCCR - Ciudadanos de North Plainfield para los Derechos Comunitarios

Nuestra Misión 

Como inversionistas, intentamos preservar la historia, herencia, belleza ecológica, la fuerza económica y la prosperidad de North Plainfield para las generaciones presentes y futuras desarrollando una relación abierta y de colaboración entre los ciudadanos y el gobierno de North Plainfield, una relación en la cual la toma de decisión sea abierta e inclusiva de todos los ciudadanos como un ejemplo genuino del Ideal Americano de un gobierno por y para la gente.

Nuestra Visión

Nuestra visión es un gobierno municipal accesible y abierto, el cual valore las voces individuales y colectivas para que un gobierno municipal autónomo y democrático sea una realidad.

Miembros de la NPCCR satisfacen NUESTRA VISIÓN haciendo lo siguiente:

• Envolviendo residentes de North Plainfield en la discusión, planeamiento estratégico y acción en asuntos municipales;
• Ejercer presión sobre líderes municipales para que actúen efectivamente y resuelvan los problemas municipales que nos afectan;
• Unificando las voces diversas de los ciudadanos de North Plainfield, autorizando vecindades en asuntos municipales que nos afectan todos;
• Asegurándose de que los líderes municipales exploren y agoten diligentemente todas las fuentes de financiamiento disponibles (Condado, Estado, Federales, Filantrópicos) antes de aumentar contribuciones y taxes a la propiedad;
• Educando residentes y oficiales municipales sobre las implicaciones legales y de seguridad relacionadas con los códigos de mantenimiento de propiedad.;
• Esforzándose para mantener un equilibrio sano entre los espacios de tierra abiertos, los negocios privados y el desarrollo de tierra sostenible.

Incremente su entendimiento Comunitario

Descubra…

• Qué está haciendo el gobierno con SUS dólares que colecta a través del impuesto;
• Cómo puede USTED obtener acceso a expedientes públicos legalmente;
• Cómo puede USTED identificar personas que pueden ayudar a implementar y ejecutar soluciones a problemas comunitarios
• Quién tiene o no tiene voluntad para trabajar con USTED, crear y mantener una visión positiva para toda su comunidad

Sabiduría es poder

¿QUE ES NPCCR?

Para la primavera del 2007, alrededor de una docena de residentes activamente desafiaban los planes que la municipalidad estaba desarrollando por los últimos cinco años para construir condominios en los 17 acres de la propiedad Villa Maria. Como fuimos ignorados por el Consejo Municipal, decidimos reenfocar nuestros esfuerzos en el problema más grande: Los Americanos no tenemos autonomía a pesar de las promesas de la Revolución Americana.

Con la asistencia del Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, los organizadores iniciales se trazaron y circularon una petición para autorizar ciudadanos locales a participar en decisiones municipales.

La impulsión de la petición fue como chispa que animó a más personas a dar el paso adelante para discutir la lista de problemas locales y para plantear estrategias para remediar estos problemas.

El interés ha crecido. Ahora, nosotros hacemos lo siguiente:

• Regularmente obtener y propagar los expedientes públicos y las actividades del gobierno;
• Celebrar reuniones mensuales en el Centro Vermeule para discutir, planear, y buscar soluciones a los problemas locales;
• Continuamente buscar al público para tener diálogo constructivo y responsable con los funcionarios de la municipalidad;
• Publicar un blog de noticias y de opinión donde se puede compartir información y opiniones diversas sobre asuntos municipales;
• Circular peticiones para adoptar leyes locales que protejan y representen los intereses y voluntad de la gente.

Acompáñenos Ahora

• Autorice a su comunidad
• Participe en una red de ayuda
• Tome acción
• Aprenda cómo usted puede realizar resultados y apoyar cambios

English language brochure: NPCCR Flier

The Spanish brochure pdf will be up shortly.

Over the next few months, Democrat incumbents may try to suggest (openly or by whisper campaign) that past, present and future collaboration with the NPCCR organization somehow tarnishes the character of the Republican, or even Democratic, challengers seeking the Mayor and three open Council seats this fall.

Another way to look at the situation - if such charges indeed ensue from the incumbent Democrats - is that the incumbent Democrats regard active, informed grassroots citizen participation in government as bad, and the challengers regard active, informed grassroots citizen participation in government as good.

As always, weigh the different viewpoints and evidence presented and draw your own conclusions.